05/25/2012

Over the week Italy remembered those courageous souls who gave their lives in challenging the Mafia.

Placido Rizzotto, a union leader killed sixty years ago by Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia, received a state funeral yesterday after his remains recently were discovered in a cave as reported by Alan Johnston for BBC News: "Italian President Giorgio Napolitano was in attendance to see him being buried in the place where he made his stand - in Corleone."

And on Wednesday, in marking the 20th anniversary of the assassination of anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, Prime Minister Mario Monti urged the country's citizens to "fight without mercy against all Mafias" as reported by Agence France-Presse: "the whole country has to commit to the fight against the Mafia, without deluding themselves that they are immune."

For those naive souls and gentle readers who believe the Mafia is a thing of the past, Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano ominously warned that organzied crime once again may resort to stragismo -- a strategy of terror -- in a bid to beat the people into submission as reported by Guy Dinmore for the Financial Times.